St. John School
Newsletter
Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Syracuse
Mission Statement
The Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Syracuse carry out the mission of Jesus Christ,
bearing witness while proclaiming the Gospel message. Together with families and
parishes, our schools provide an education rooted in the Gospel that is “living,
conscious, and active” including values and ideals that are in accordance with the
teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. We empower our students to live their faith
with compassion, integrity and respect for all life and the diversity of our world.
Our schools are faith-centered communities focused on promoting academic excellence
while developing a strong moral conscience and embracing Catholic principles to enable
students to meet lifelong challenges and demands in our rapidly changing world.
1/30/2015
Dear Parents,
We begin the month of February with a busy and exciting week. On
Tuesday, February 3rd the K - 6th grade classes will be going by bus
to Seton Catholic Central High School for “Light the Way-Catholic
Schools liturgy. Please feel welcome to join us in prayer and song at
10:00 at SCCHS.
The Science Fair for 5th - 6th grade will be held on Wednesday,
February 4th. The awards ceremony will be held in the gym at
6:00pm.
Many of our students art projects will be on display at Binghamton
City Hall next week and a ceremony for the parents and students will
be held on Thursday, February 5th at 6:30pm.
Congratulations to Jack Olsian(5) for placing 1st in our National
Geographic Bee. The 2nd place position went to Nick Lang. Great job
by all 10 that competed in the final bee and a huge thank you to
Mr.Kocik for providing this important educational experience each
year.
Have a wonderful weekend and stay warm!
Mrs. Mary Ellen Kelley
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Mrs. Burr…..The fun was nonstop in the 3’s this week! We talked
about names and practiced spelling ours with our name puzzles. The
game “What is in the cup?” had us using our noses and sense of
smell to help us determine what was in the mystery cups. The book
Chicka, Chicka, 1,2,3 started our conversation about numbers and
they practiced number recognition and counting. After reading about
nests in the book The Best Nest they painted a picture of a
nightingale and practiced building their very own nest. Last but
certainly not least we talked about Noah after reading the book
Noah’s Ark. Next week is Oo week. Please remember to bring in an Oo
item for show and tell on Monday. Have a nice weekend!!!
~Mrs. Burr~
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4 Year Olds.....Congratulations to Lydia Carangelo on the birth of
her baby brother on Monday! This week we introduced the letter
Oo.
Some of the outstanding books we read were Olive the
Octopus’s Day of Juggling by Liza Charlesworth, Over and Under
the Snow by Kate Messner, Otis by Loren Long and Owl Babies by
Martin Waddell. We had fun learning about opposites, owls,
octopus, the ocean, ostriches and hibernation. (Hibernation went
along with our book Over and Under the Snow!) We celebrated
Catholic Schools Week by having ice cream sundaes and watching
some of our teachers play volleyball against students.
We were
rooting for the teachers! For Show & Tell on Monday it will be the
letter Pp.
On Wednesday we will have a Pajama Day - so,
preschoolers wear your pj’s! We will watch a Disney movie and eat
popcorn!
Our class will not have school on Thursday or Friday due
to Parent/Teacher Conferences.
I hope you all have a blessed
weekend!
~Mrs. Fox~
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Transitional Kindergarten.....What a busy week we have had here in
TK! We kicked off Catholic Schools Week by celebrating liturgy with
the rest of the school. I am so proud of how well behaved our
children are during mass. We looked at a map of Haiti and talked
about how important it is to be nice to other people who may not have
as much as we have. We colored pictures of the flag from Haiti and
children play soccer and then gathered soccer balls, sunglasses,
baseball hats and air pumps to send over to Haiti. We enjoyed ice
cream sundaes. watching a Veggie Tales movie with Mrs. Fox’s class
about the Minnesota Cuke and Noah’s Umbrella and sang with Jared
Campbell about being part of the “No Bullies St. John’s Club”. We
also learned all about the letter /Nn/ this week. We made necklaces,
ate noodles, made nests filled with our sight words, made a card for
Nurse Pat and a Noah’s Ark. If you think this week was busy...just
wait until you see what’s coming up in February! We will learn about
the letter /Oo/ next week. Show & Tell will be on Monday. There will
be NO TK on Thursday, February 5th for Parent/Teacher Conferences.
If you can not attend your conference, please either let the office
know or send me a text so we can reschedule. We will be celebrating
Valentine’s Day AND the 100th Day of School on Friday, February
13th. A separate letter will be coming home with instructions for
100th Day Projects and a class list for Valentines.~Mrs. Reibel~
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Kindergarten…… We had a fun and busy Catholic Schools Week. The
children enjoyed the movie and sundaes on Wednesday. The Jared
Campbell show was excellent and we learned an important message
of using kind words. The letter of the week was Rr and we met Rocky
Raccoon. The story of the week was Our Special Sweet Potato Pie.
We learned new sight words went, my, what, be and want. In Math, we
represented decomposition and composition addition stories to 8
with drawings and equations with no unknown. In Religion, we
learned that Jesus grew up in Nazareth with Mary and Joseph. They
learned that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are called the Holy Family. The
students may pass out Valentine’s Day cards but please have your
child only sign their name because this makes passing them out
much easier! We will have a little party on the 13th of February.
Enjoy the weekend!
Mrs. Newins
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First Grade.....It's hard to believe we are in the third quarter. I am
pleased with the progress of the first graders. They are a hard
working group of children. If after reviewing your child's report card,
you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. A
successful 1st grade experience is both our goals. Our topic this
week in Religion is how our church serves. This fits in nicely with the
theme for Catholic Schools week. Your donations for the children in
Haiti are greatly appreciated. The boys and girls are learning the
importance of taking care of our neighbors near and far. In Math we
completed Module 2 and took the assessment. The boys and girls are
really showing a deep understanding and application of difficult
addition and subtraction strategies. We are all excited about the
class Spelling Bee. Thank you for helping to prepare your child for
the contest. Just a reminder to send in the permission slip for the
Mass next week at SCC. Finally we welcome a new first grader,
Anthony De Los Santos and his family to our class. Anthony comes
to us from All Saints' Academy in the Scranton area. Have a great
weekend and try to stay warm.
Mrs. Vaverchak
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Second Grade…We have had a busy week celebrating Catholic
Schools Week!! In English Language Arts, we learned about the
ending digraphs of ch, tch, sh, and th. We also reviewed summarizing
a paragraph or short article. Due to the fact that we will be having our
National Scripp’s Spelling Bee next Friday, there will be no weekly
spelling test. In Math, we are continuing to move ahead in Module 4.
It is a long module and we will spend quite a large amount of time on
it. In Religion, we spent the first part of the week reviewing about the
Sacrament of Reconciliation and the later part of the week beginning
of our studies on the Sacrament of First Communion. Please be sure
to complete and return the permission slip for our mass on Tuesday
at SCCHS. Have a great weekend! Mrs. Pencek
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Second Grade….What a nice time we have had celebrating Catholic
Schools week! Due to our special activities we have decreased our
work load and spent time reviewing skills we have covered already
and moved forward a little. In phonics we explored the ending
digraphs of ch, tch, and sh. This is also are spelling pattern for Week
4. That the week 4 spelling test will be on Monday as will our weekly
Reading assessment. Next week we will have concluded unit 3 in our
Reading series. We will spend time reviewing next week and take the
Unit 3 test the week of February 9th. In math we continue making
headway in learning to compose and decompose our tens and
hundreds. A few more lessons to go before we conclude this very
loooooong module. This week we have begun to explore the different
parts of the mass. We focused this week on the beginning of mass up
to the first reading. During this time we are using less of our texts
and more discussion and recollection of what they do at mass. Going
to the chapel helps to emphasize what we are learning. We are almost
near the end of the War of 1812. It truly has held the children’s
interest. Our next domain will bring us into Science! We will alternate
back and forth between Social Studies and Science throughout the
second half of the year. Have a great weekend! Many blessings.. Ms.
Savage
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Third Grade..... It seems so many new things are happening in the 3rd
grade. We had a great trip last week to the Roberson Museum. The
students enjoyed activities that allowed them to examine different
rocks in order to classify them. They also liked looking at numerous
fossils and displays of some of the animals that lived in our area in
the distant past. In math, we are finished our multiplication module
and will have a test next Monday. Religion classes focused on parish
life and on all the different ways people work together to help others
and to serve God. It tied in nicely with the Catholic Schools Week
theme of "Faith, Knowledge, and Service". Thank you to everyone
who donated items to send to Haiti! In ELA, we continued reading
Peter Pan. We learned to write an opinion statement along with
information to support the opinion. The students have also received
information about the upcoming school-wide Spelling Bee as well as
the Poetry Recitation. Please be sure to look for the information in
your child's folders. Enjoy a wonderful weekend! Stay warm!
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ELA.....Mrs. Mary Terela
Our celebration of Catholic Schools Week inspired us as we enjoyed a
variety of activities connected to our theme of faith, knowledge, and
service. We completed weekly tests in our Treasures series for
reading and spelling, covering skills of past, present and future verb
tenses as well as the third person limited and omniscient points of
view. As we move along to a new month, our Scripps National
Spelling Bee competition is also arriving! We will have the classroom
bee next Thursday in grades 1 - 6, with two winners from each grade
level competing the following week. Then two finalists will represent
Saint John’s at the regional bee in the beginning of March. How
exciting! Please encourage your children to study their lists as we
begin the first round next week! For student appreciation day we
enjoyed the movie Akeelah and the Bee -it was quite inspiring and
makes us want to spell all kinds of fun as well as challenging words
as we get ready for our “school bee!” In our 4th grade homeroom we
are on our last box of tissues. We sure could use some more with all
these January germs we are trying to stay ahead of! Please send in a
box with your child. Thank you! Happy weekend spelling!..
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Math & Science...Mrs. Rai
4th grade science. is studying the body systems. There will be a quiz
next week. 4th math is deep in the metric system.
5th math is dividing fractions. 5th science is studying the rock cycle.
6th math is calculating surface area. 6th science is looking at energy.
Science fair boards(5-6) are due Feb 3rd. Awards are Feb 4th in the
gym at 6pm.
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Social Studies, Current Events, Religion......John Kocik
Very busy Catholic Schools week, but we still manage to get some work
done.
4th Rel.- We have completed the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy.
We will be tested on the 3rd Commandment.
4th S.S.- We have visited the Erie Canal and cities that were developed
because of this creation. So now it is on to the Industrial Revolution
5th Rel.- Will be now studying the sacrament of Confirmation.
5th S.S.- Now that we are finished with Life in the 13 colonies, it time for
the Fr-In War.
6th Rel.- We have just witness the fight between David and Goliath and
discovered David did not just hit him with a sling-shot.
6th S.S.- We just packed our bags for Greece and we have enjoyed our
stay in China.
Quote
I haven’t read any of the autobiographies about me.
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From the Health Office...Pat Chirumbolo RN
“When is my child sick enough to stay home from school?”
This is not always an easy question to answer! We hope these tips can
help.
Here are some guidelines for keeping a sick child home:
● Fever of 100 degrees or more by mouth in the past 24 hours
(Keep child home for 24 hours after temp. is normal without the
use of medicine for fever)
● Vomiting in the past 24 hours
● Diarrhea in the past 24 hours
● Chills even if dressed appropriately
● Sore throat, especially if child feels ill or has fever
● Strep Throat (must have been taking an antibiotic for at least 24
hours before returning to school)
● Bad cold, with a very runny nose especially if accompanied by
facial pain or headache
● Bad cough, especially if it has kept the child awake at night or
makes the child feel uncomfortable or disrupts the class
● Severe ear pain or drainage from ear
● Severe headache
● Child is too ill or sleepy from illness to participate in class
A child who is sick will not benefit from being in school and is likely to
spread the illness to other children and staff. If the above symptoms
begin in school we will call the parents to discuss a plan including
picking the child up to go home.
Finally, if you know your child is running a fever or has other symptoms
of illness, it is not a good idea to simply give them medicine and send
them to school because as soon as the medicine wears off, you are apt
to get the dreaded call from school to leave work and come get your ill
child.
Remember, whenever you keep your child home from school, please call
the school office at the start of the day to let us know your child is
absent.
Winter will be with us for awhile yet so let’s try to stay well!
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